[Avodah] Anshei Knesset Hagedolah

[Zev Sero]

Marty Bluke wrote:
> In truth, Mordechai was a member of the Anshei Knesset Hagedola
> however that doesn't help us for 2 reasons:
> 
> 1. The Anshei Knesset Hagedola did not yet exist at the time of Purim,
> it was only created after the second beis hamikdash was built

This brings up something that I've long wondered about.  Was the
"Anshei Knesset Hagedolah" some sort of standing body in that generation,
a sort of super-sanhedrin that didn't survive as an institution for lack
of people suitable to sit on it?  Or was there one "Knesset Hagedolah"
a convention of relatively short duration (up to several years, perhaps),
like lehavdil the Philadelphia Convention that wrote the USA constitution,
and the people who attended it were the "anshei Knesset Hagedolah"?

In which case the quoted text should read "Mordechai was one of the
anshei Knesset Hagedola....The Knesset Hagedola hadn't yet happened..."

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher